Any tips for first-time rabbit owners?

[Blu]

Oh why, oh why have I agreed to this?

Anyway, too late for the hand-wringing, DS's 2 7 week-old Netherland Dwarf rabbits arrive on Saturday.

I am planning to convert the shed for them so that they have a good lot of space to run around in until they are older and the weather is better and then they can have a good big outdoor hutch with a run.

Will they be ok in the shed? it does have a window, they won't be in the dark.
Will newspaper be ok on the floor, with straw in their sleeping box?

Do they need a sleeping box each or will they snuggle in together? (two females - they are living together at the moment, but not full sisters)

If I put them in the garden in a run, how will I make sure they can't dig out? Should I put chicken wire down under the run? (they won't just be abandoned in a run, they will be agle to get into their proper hutch).

Is there anything we should know that I might not have thought about? I will feed them the same food as they are having now...and gradually introduce a little veg when they are older.
We haven't had a good track record with a Tamogotchi - we need to do better with the bunnies.

And all this operating and vaccinating is going to be expensive, isn't it?

I knew we should get guinea pigs!

Rhian - aw cruel!

I have a house bunny, her name is fifi, she was house trained in 2 days, scratches at the door to be let out for the loo and scratches to come back in again, at night she is put in her indoor cage (which she uses for the loo in the daytime aswell) we have put her vet box in the cage as her bed, its easily cleanable! 3yo twins love her, and when they dance fifi runs round them, we let her outside every day! she is a dwarf lop rabbit, very friendly, sits under my legs (like a dog) when I am sat on settee, picks all the kids crumbs off the floor, and loves fuss and grooming! the downside of house rabbit is having to tape all wires to walls!

Shed would be a lovely home for your rabbit, I hate rabbits cooped up in a tiny cage, they need to race and hop about! you could make little climbing boxes that they could also go inside, a run outside is lovely if you havent got a safe enough area for them to run around free (under supervision of course)
Good luck and enjoy! sorry this was long I am just a bunnyholic!

We have had guinea pigs, they don't need alot of room, are very shy, eat you out of house and home and stink! cause they poo anywhere, untrainable but adorable to watch!

We have a little pond - if I let them run free in the garden, will they fall in? And wouldn't any poisonous plants be a problem? Actually, I'm not letting them run free at all in case a cat jumps in.

mine run about in the garden, they sort of walk around really slowly getting their bearings first of all, it's cute. i don't think they'll fall in your pond dont worry!

sea - thats so cute the way they do that!

Well the pond - which is about the size of a big casserole dish - has 8 frogs in it mating and dp is saying 'you're going to have to find a way to control all the baby frogs'. [wtf emoticon].
The shed is now fully converted and kitted out, little sleeping bungalow, another hidey-hole thing, an old grill pan nailed to the wall to hold the water bottle and hay manger, and some overpriced bits of wood for them to gnaw..
DP is off to collect the little beasts...but is convinced they will die of stress on the journey home or chew out of the carrier and escape on the train.....

VVV, TeeCee etc you are of unclean mind and not for for these boards.

you are making me tempted

get good batteries.

OOOH i see you mean the other type of rabbit.

errr good hay?

OK - serious question: should I ration the amount of pellets they eat?
I gave them a bowl of pellets first thing this morning as the pet shop had advised us to give none yesterday because of the trauma of being taken home in a box. They have devoured the bowlful, and jumped in to eat a fresh supply when I gave them more at lunch time.
They have good hay and water, and are not etaing fresh food yet.
They are eating dwarf/junior pellets in a pale green bag.

i give my rabbits one bowl a day and they eat alot of hay which is really good for their teeth, ime female rabbits love to eat more than anything else

oh are they lovely!

They are certainly very very sweet. DS has been sitting in the shed talking to them - should I catch them and force them to be stroked?

So do yours finish the whole bowl, SEA, and would they eat moe if you gave them to them?

DP is off to buy scales as he is anxious about them dying of over or underfeeding!

Ours are female netherland dwarfs, aged 7 weeks.

mine do finish the whole bowl and would eat more if offered, but they eat the hay instead which is better for them, really relax and have fun with them!

one of our rabbits is missing this morning with bits of fur around their enclosure - we suspect an urban fox. You need bolts on the door not catches to keep foxes out.

Rabbits are territorial so the best pairing is a neutred male and neutered female. Females should be done anyway to protect them from ovarian cancer.

Sorry to hear about your rabbit, Tatt.
We have a catch high up, and a padlock - foxes can deal with swivel catches they can reach . I'm horrified by the flimsy catches I see on the hutches for sale in our local pet shop.

I'll be talking to a vet soon about neutering - i am sure that one of our 'female' rabbits is male....they are 12 weeks, now...

our "male" rabbit turned out to be female and burrowed madly before she was neutered. Even the vet wasn't too confident of the sex when we first got her .

Our male rabbit had to squeeze through the entrance to their enclosure, didn't realise how small a hole a fox could get through.

btw mesh bases on enclosures may not be necessary. Our female dug madly at first but when neutered and paired off she stopped doing much digging. Mesh floors can hurt their feet so we didn't have one, just moved the run and filled the hole if we saw they'd started digging. Their permanent run has paving stones around the edge so they could dig a bit and still not get underneath. Or you can sink the wire on the sides into the ground.

Ours escaped once when the door was accidentally left open but went back to their hutch voluntarily when headed in that direction.

Ohh, rabbits
Your warren sounds fab blu!
Personally, I wouldn't force them to be picked up - as others have said many rabbits don't like it - If dd's just sit in with them & let them come to them/hop over them/stroke them on the floor, that's probably a good place to start
We had a fab Netherland dwarf house-bunny pre-kids - she (sold as male...) was fab

southeastastra,

thanks for putting the pic on your profile, I'm glad she's happy. Ds1 kept asking to go visit her but ds2 has not had a reaction since so thank you very very much for rehoming her.

incywincy

Bunnies, oh lovely, i lurrve bunnies, we had two giant rabbits, one weighed more than our cat, they lived out and destroyed our garden. Netherland dwarf are not the friendliest i have to say so handle handle handle. The fly strike issue is a serious one especially in the summer. It can take hold in HOURS sometimes less so must be vigilent (sp) about their bottoms. Give as much fresh food as you can, but NOT lettuce or cauliflour leaves as they are not easily digested and can lead to problems. Some bunnis have problems with their teeth, this is often genetic and due to misaligned jaws and is (i think) more common in dwarf breeds. These bunnies will need regular trips to the vets to have teeth trimmed. This tends to present as a persistent shitty bottom, partly because the teeth cause the rabbit to only choose soft food etc, then diarreoah set in and then they can't clean, so keep an eye on those bottoms as even the most fastidious of owners can have a fly struck bunny and its not a good outcome. Also, there is a school of thought that teeth problems are caused by a lack of calcium in the diet and this is often caused by feeding cheap bunny foods, the rabbits tend to prefer the fatty "peas" and these fill them up and they leave the pellets untouched, so i would recommend eitehr super rabbit (exel i think) or russel rabbit as these are brill.

Good luck with your bundles of fun.

Oh and one more thing vaccinations, every 6 months for myxi and every year (i think) for HVD.

i'm pleased your son hasn't had anymore reactions incywincy

bunny really is a dear and such a character. she's chewing on a bit of hay as i speak! i'll add some more photos soon

speaking of flimsy hutches - some people use sheds permanently as they can be cheaper. A proper size hutch ( 6 foot by 2ft by 2 ft minimim) is pretty expensive. Just make sure a shed has an opening window so its not too hot in summer, rabbits overheat easily. Some people use old sideboards with roofing felt added to the top and one door replaced by wire mesh as a hutch. Only read that after we'd spent ages building one.

We didn't build it very well. If you haven't got yours yet look for one with the bottom couple of inches solid (or fold down flap) to hold the newspaper/ wood chip. If you get one with a ramp down all the wood chip will blow down it so ideally the ramp should be at the front - but I've never seen one like that. It's also good if the entrance to the sleeping area is raised so they don't kick the contents out as easily. Sleeping area should be large enough for them both to stretch out inside - although ours tended to prefer to be separate in all but the coldest weather.

OUr shed is working out pretty well as a home for them. There is a set of big shelves at the back, and I can use all the top shelves for storage (the rabbits hop onto the first shelf, they seem to like it), we have shelves all round the wall at a high level, and lots of things hanging on hooks. DS can take his little chair in and sit with them, all v cosy. But the heat is already a problem - my BIL is building a sort of screen door so that they can see out and have air.